To Plant A New Seed
by Iridescent Snowflake
Summary: Although he's no son of Athena, Travis has a master plan - involving fireworks, seeds, flowers and Coke - to do what he should have done a long time ago. Fluffy Traitie fic.


"Is the coast clear?"

"You bet. Let's get ourselves some free lunch."

The brothers burst out of their hiding place from the bushes and headed for the unguarded picnic set up beside the creek. The Aphrodite picnickers were running off in the direction of the stables, pursuing a mysterious runaway MAC makeup kit through the woods. It was awesome what one could do with a fishing line ninety-five yards long.

The boys quickly set to work. Raiding goodies was one specialty they have kept for years.

"Don't forget the lemonade."

"Toss me a bagel."

"Why should I?"

"Because I'll splatter you with root beer if you don't."

"Alright, alright, jeez."

They had barely finished their raid when a twig snapped behind them. Before they could react, little tendrils started to curl around their legs. They rapidly grew and thickened into trunks, encasing them in a woody prison up to their necks. Connor's bagel fell to the ground.

"What in Tartarus?" he yelped, and struggled against the vines. Travis tried so too, but only found out they were about as tough as titanium. He wasn't surprised. He knew what that girl could do.

"Well well well, if it isn't Travis Stoll This and Connor Stoll That."

Katie Gardner melted out of the woods as if she was a dryad. She was wearing an extremely angry, but cute, smirk on her face. Connor looked beyond confused, but Travis had a pretty good idea why she was here.

"Bad pun," scoffed Connor.

"Better than most of yours, anyway," Katie shot back. "I like the look of that bagel." She stepped right in him and snatched the bagel away. He scowled.

"Look, you can dump us in the lake, or report us to Chiron, or rat us out to the Aphrodite girls - but you can't take my bagel."

"Too bad then." Katie waved it in his face and took a huge bite.

"Why are you here, Katie?" asked Travis. (Even though he knew the answer already.)

She held out her hand, all traces of humor in her eyes gone. "The packet. Give it."

"I would if my hands weren't pinned to my knees."

"Wait, wait. Hold up." Connor shook his head. With his longish curly hair flopping around his face, he looked like a dog shaking off water from its fur. "What packet? What are we talking about?"

"Travis knows." She turned her piercing gaze back on Travis's face that practically has "Guilty" written on it in bold. "Don't you? If you wanted to make magical sunflower seed cereal without my knowledge, you could at least take some time to make sure the packet has zero holes on it. You two are getting sloppier." She jabbed her thumb at a little trail of seeds gleaming behind her. (Yeah, gleaming sunflower seeds. How magical. Imagine all the fiber they contain.)

Travis could feel Connor's eyes bugging out at him, and he averted his eyes to the ground. He inhaled softly, mentally organized his brain, and reviewed his plan. Phase One was complete. Now on to Phase Two - Let Katie take the bait.

"Unless you're waiting for your seeds to sprout in my pocket, I suggest you let me go first."

Katie huffed, but she flicked her fingers and the bark around his body dissolved into green vapor. Travis picked the wallet-sized gardening packet out of his jeans pocket after rubbing his sore arms. He tossed it to Katie, who fumbled a little before catching it between her fingers.

Travis grinned. "You catch like a girl."

Katie tossed a mushroom the size of his fist (where did _that_ come from?) at his head. It hit him square in the nose. "At least I don't throw like one." Travis watched her flounce away as he rubbed his nose.

"Um, hello?" Connor called as he struggled against the vines. "Not all of us are happy and free here?" He wriggled a little more before realizing it was futile. He looked at Travis, his face full of suspicion. Travis braced himself. It was time to come clean to his little bro.

Words after words hit Travis like bullets. "Dude, you _never_ screw up. Usually I'm the one who screws up, but not _you. _Never you. You lead her here?"

Travis smiled weakly at his scandalized little brother. "Yeah."

He let out a long, slow and unsure breath. He had no idea how long he'd been holding it. Phase Three - the last and most important phase - was happening as they speak. He prayed to Hermes that Connor was right about his never screwing up. Because he can't afford a single flaw in his plan. Not now.

* * *

"Idiotic, brainless Hermes brats," Katie spat as she stepped into the floral interiors of Cabin 4. She froze instantly.

"Nobody. Move," she said, her eyes wide and darting around the cabin in alarm. Her brothers and sisters dropped whatever they were doing. Her gardening senses were tingling.

Maybe Katie should explain. Half-bloods of Demeter have this special ability to detect all living plants in a fifteen-meter radius, sort of like a demigod flower detector. They could sense anything from fruits and veggies to even algae. Like right now, Katie could kind of hear the plants in her cabin, but instead of hearing them through her ears, she can feel their presence in her core.

But right now, in the harmonious choir of flora singing in her head, a voice was missing.

So Katie's plant senses were the sharpest among her siblings. Still. They should have noticed something odd in their cabin.

They were still frozen in place, too afraid of Katie to move a single muscle. She had that effect on lots of people, she realized.

She scanned the cabin, checking each and every present plant off her mental checklist. Snow lilacs check. Zignosias, check. Spider web ferns check. (If anyone ever had the guts to steal those, she would make sure he or she suffered a painful death.) That could only mean…

Anger started to simmer inside of Katie. Her fists clenched, nearly crashing the sunflower seed packet in her left hand. She felt like a geyser ready to go off. Her absolute favorite flowers… a birthday gift from her mom when she turned 15, no less…

"Who. Took. My. Peony starbursts?" She turned around slowly with each word and faced her cabinmates. From the looks on their faces, she could tell they thought she looked scarier than the drakon they faced in the last Titan War.

Jonathan, who was closest to her, spoke tentatively to his shoelaces. "Actually, we just came back here, so I guess you could say it wasn't any of us."

"And what made you go out in the first place?" she asked slowly but menacingly, like a leopard before the kill.

Jonathan appeared to be trying to kill a microorganism on his sneaker with his eyes. Finally, when it was clear no one was going to speak up, he coughed. "Travis."

Katie cursed. She should have known.

"He said something about… discovering pineapples by the lake that tasted like coconuts…"

"And you guys _fell for that?!"_

"Hey, it sounded pretty awesome, and we figured we could shove his head into the nearest blackberry bush if he was lying, but unfortunately he was gone by the time we realized it was a trick."

Katie huffed. At her windowsill, a certain lilac and fuchsia-patterned bunch of flowers were missing. She already missed those golden leaves that shimmered like sunlight on a stream. She decided she would strangle Travis with her own hands.

_Travis._

She quickly ripped open her seed packet and sprinkled its contents into the nearest flowerpot. A distressed piece of paper with messy handwriting fell out. Katie snatched it up and began reading it.

_Dear Katie, _

_I have your peony whatzits. Only I and I alone know where they are, and mark my words, no matter how hard you try, you would never find them. Send a search party for me if you want to, but I guarantee you I won't let myself be found easily. The only way you can get your precious flowers back is if you meet up with me at the fireworks tonight. I'll bring a few cans of Coke. Meet me at the beach at seven or say goodbye to your flowers._

_P.S: Connor had nothing to do with any of this. It was all my idea._

_Sincerely,__Travis_

Katie had nearly forgotten about the Fourth of July fireworks. To think that Travis wanted to meet up with her on the biggest dating event of the summer...

Could he be...?

No _way _was he serious...

She flopped onto her bunk, her thoughts tangled like brambles and vines.

_Travis is annoying. _

_But he's funny too__._

_He covered our _roof_ with chocolate Easter bunnies._

_They were delicious, once we got them down._

_He sprayed me with a Coke once._

_He let me wear his hoodie that one time in capture the flag, when he saw that I was cold._

_Urrrgh._

_"_Um, Katie?"

Train of thoughts interrupted.

She shot up from her bed. "What?!"

"Can we like, start moving now?"

**A/N:**

**Gods, I haven't written anything in SO long. I miss it. Kinda.**

**Is the title kind of weird? I ran out of ideas, and that was the only thing I could think of, so. **

**Anyway, here's a fluffy (and really bad) Traitie fic for all you demigods out there! I also made up a few headcanons about Demeter half-bloods' abilities and all, like how Katie is the most powerful among them, and that the Demeter cabin has some plant species that don't exist outside of Camp Half-Blood, so that would explain why Katie is so protective of her plants. Hope you guys like them!**

**P.S: Can anyone believe there's just one month left 'till House of Hades is published?!**


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